Find Your Adventure

Mountainfilm in Telluride

October 21, 2011

Last night we bumped into David Holbrooke, mastermind behind Mountainfilm, the world-class film festival that explores adventure, exploration, the environment, and world issues each Memorial Day Weekend in Telluride, Colorado. He gave us the skinny on what to do this weekend in New York City: Check out the incredible films and adventurers who have arrived in Gotham for the very first Mountainfilm in New York.

Here's our short list of film picks:

Kadoma - A tribute to Hendri Coetzee and a must see. The legendary expedition kayaker was killed by a 15-foot croc in the Congo last year. A film by Ben Stookesberry, kayaker and former Adventurer of the Year—who will be there in person.

Spoil - A new film by NG explorers Trip Jennings and Andy Maser about the Great Bear Rainforest in British Columbia, home to the spirit bear and teeming with wildlife. Also potentially the site of new oil pipeline....

Cold - Photographer/mountaineer Cory Richards shows what's it's like to climb an 8,000-meter peak in winter. And get caught in an avalanche.

Alone on the Wall - Our favorite free soloist Alex Honnold on climbing without ropes. A true adventure classic. Alex was also an Adventurer of the Year.

Towers of Ennedi - The North Face climbing team—Renan, Alex, James, Jimmy—takes on the sandstone wonderland of Chad. We first covered this expedition in our Extreme Photo of the Week.

August 24, 2009

The directors of Mountainfilm in Telluride—which is seriously one of our favorite weekends of the year, thanks to its appealing mix of stunning location, thoughtful films, and stimulating discussions—are launching a new event this weekend: Mountain Summit in Aspen. Think of it as Mountainfilm Lite.

May 28, 2009

Mountainfilm gave its Moving Mountains prize jury, consisting of Grammy-winning artist Shawn Colvin, documentarian Chris Paine, HBO Vice President Nancy Abraham, and me, the challenging privilege of selecting one nonprofit from six strong candidates. Each of the candidates was represented by a film documenting their work, and the festival pledged each nonprofit at least $400.

In 2008, the grand prize was $5,000, and was won by my favorite organization, Free The Slaves, the American wing of the world’s oldest human rights group. Within a month, Free The Slaves had used the money to rescue and to begin the rehabilitation of ten child slaves in Ghana.

This year, the economic downturn had reduced the prize to $3,000. Furthermore, the top two contenders were both supremely worthy causes, but our mandate was to give just one prize. In September 2007, a handful of courageous local journalists, the Democratic Voice of Burma, armed only with video cameras, brought the world’s attention to the horrors committed by the generals in their suppression of the Buddhist monk-led freedom movement. Their story was chronicled in Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country.

For two decades, Dr. Rick Hodes has dedicated his life to providing medical care to Ethiopians, many with very severe deformities, who would otherwise go untreated. His is angelic work, which encompasses all aspects of his life, and is chronicled beautifully in the spare yet moving film, Making the Crooked Straight.

As a jury, we agreed that some causes are too important to be nickel-and-dimed. We each made pledges to shore up the prize money. Within hours, other festival participants pledged even grander amounts. In the end, we didn’t have to choose between the top two: Hodes’ operation and the Democratic Voice of Burma will receive $5000 each. Both causes are worthy of much larger donations, but the awards nonetheless demonstrate why Mountainfilm is on a higher plane than most other film festivals: Its participants not only celebrate the indomitable human spirit, but also commit to reinforcing it.

May 26, 2009

Here at ADVENTURE, we're big fans of the national parks (we do a cover feature on them every year). We're also big fans of the definitive, iconic documentaries of Ken Burns (The Civil War and Jazz are two favorites). Knowing that Burns had just completed a new series on America's national parks, we asked him to write an introduction to our section this year, and he graciously agreed. So you could say we've already bought into this thing.

The twelve-hour, six-part series doesn't air until Labor Day, so I won't give away too much, but if you love the outdoors and American history, you simply have to watch it—and buy the DVD set, which will be released at the same time. The cinematography, of course, is enthralling. After the first ten minutes of Episode One, you'll want to quit your job, pull your kids out of school, and spend the next six months visiting all 58 of them. (Well...maybe not.) But there's so much more to it than that.

Of all Burns' series, The National Parks may be the most powerful subject through which to tell the story of post-Civil War America: How our unique natural heritage defines this country to ourselves and the world. How the fight to establish a park system brought out the best and the worst of us—greed and rapaciousness, idealism and generosity, often colliding head-to-head on the valley floor of the Grand Canyon or the forests of Great Smokies. How the automobile really did change America, swiftly and drastically. How we worked ourselves out of the Great Depression. How our country evolves, fails, starts over, and moves on, constantly and relentlessly. Sometimes there are huge historical forces at work—the transformative power of the railroads, the tragic dispersal of Native Americans. Sometimes great individuals, like John Muir, just make great things happen. Thankfully, in the case of the parks, it's worked out pretty well. So far.

One challenge Burns has with these Big Iconic Subjects is that we think we already know the stories, the themes, the broad strokes. And we do. But Burns' storytelling is powerfully affective. In Episode Four, a couple from Nebraska spends every summer for decades traveling the parks with their dog, Barney. She keeps marvelous journals, capturing their love of these special places. He takes the photographs—5,000 of them. The first Parks Director, Stephen Mather, despite his own bouts of depression, manages to save and expand the system time and again, and sets the bar for generations to come. Seeing it all through their eyes, you start to understand how just important and wonderful these places are. When the lights came up after that episode with the story of the couple from Nebraska, Burns himself was choked up. He's seen that segment, he said, a couple hundred times. "And," he said, "it happens every time." A young African American man, Shelton Johnson, interviewed on screen about his job as a park ranger, left the theatre for a few minutes after the section on his hero Stephen Mather, who understood that rangers were the human face of the parks, and did everything he could to help them. I asked Johnson if he'd seen the section on Mather before, and he said, "Yes, three or four times, and it's always difficult."

Twelve hours and six episodes may seem like a big commitment, especially if you know you're going to choke up a few times along the way, like Ken Burns, Shelton Johnson, and the rest of us did. Trust us, it's worth it.

Yesterday we caught up with Jim Whittaker, now 80 years old, at the Mountainfilm in Telluride Reading Frenzy, which is basically a book fair filled with impressive adventure authors—Ben Skinner, James Balog, David Breashears. No surprise, Whittaker stood tall (he's almost 6'6") next to an empty box that once held copies of his autobiography, A Life on the Edge. After graciously volunteering to mail us a signed copy, Whittaker answered a couple questions about Everest, risk-taking, and how to avoid taking up too much space.

Q: This past week your nephew, Peter, made it to the top of Everest. You must be one proud uncle.

Jim Whittaker: Absolutely. And I was glad that he was able to climb with Ed Viesturs. You see, Ed’s smart. He used oxygen this time. He’s done it without oxygen many times. But he used it this year to keep an eye on Peter. To help him get up the mountain safely. I really appreciate that.

Ed knows Everest.

He sure does. His first ascent was on the 1990 Everest Peace Climb, a multinational expedition that I organized. I picked Ed to go up with the Chinese and the Soviets on the first team. But he surprised me when he asked to go with the second group. You see, he knew that I wanted the first group to use bottled oxygen to assure their success. Ed wanted to climb the mountain without it.

What did you see in him?

I knew he was a strong climber. That’s why I picked him. But he was also smart. He gave up his bid to get up the mountain first so that he could go without oxygen. He realized there was a risk there, so he went in the second group.

So it doesn't surprise you that he has gained a reputation as one of the best climbers in the world at managing risks?

Not at all. You've got to be a smart climber to summit all 14 8,000-meter peaks without bottled oxygen.

On the other end of the intelligence spectrum, we’ve seen some films this weekend of people doing seemingly crazy things—like free climbing the Eiger and BASE jumping off of it. What do you think of the risks climbers are willing to take today?

James Ramsey Ullman, the author of Americans on Everest, put it this way: Challenge is the core of all human activity. If there's an ocean we cross it. If there’s a record we break it. If there’s a disease we cure it. If there’s a wrong we right it. If there’s a mountain we climb it. These guys want challenge. The human character is to push a little bit farther all the time. These guys are doing things that I would never do.

But you were certainly pushing the limits when you became the first American to climb Everest in 1963.

That’s right. And we still need people to challenge themselves, to push a little bit, to live on the edge. After all, if you’re not living on the edge, you’re taking up too much space.

We're just back from an incredible long weekend at the 31st annual Mountainfilm in Telluride, which fills the spectacular Colorado box canyon with thought-provoking films, a symposium on worldwide food issues, inspiring guests (Jim Whittaker, Ken Burns, Nicholas Kristof, to name just a few), and a constant view of the gorgeous Bridal Veil Falls (pictured above at center). Stay tuned for film reviews, interviews, and more over the next couple days.

April 24, 2009

The 31st annual Mountainfilm festival in Telluride, Colorado, will take place on May 22-25. What began as an event for mountain climbers to watch movies about mountains has since evolved into a four-day tour de force of documentaries, gallery exhibits, and high-profile lectures evaluating some of society’s most pressing issues, from world water and energy issues to access to food. And if testimonies from last year’s festival-goers are any indication, Mountainfilm is sure to inspire once again.

About a decade ago, in the face of a number of growing global concerns, the festival board decided it was time to expand beyond the parameters of showcasing only adventure films. Thus, a concerted effort was made to transform Mountainfilm into a venue for openly evaluating environmental and cultural issues through a broad range of artistic mediums. The concept would be anchored each year by a themed symposium. In 2007, the festival’s topic was energy; in 2008, it was water. This year, Mountainfilm is focusing on the crucial role that food plays in our society. The festival's directors have sought out an array of experts to lead discussions, such as author Bill McKibben and National Geographic Magazine executive editor Dennis Dimnick.

The result is an atmosphere which festival director David Holbrooke describes as “electric.” And that’s not just because the town of Telluride sits high in the San Juans and is prone to lightning storms, but because this “part film festival, part think tank, part jamboree” draws together a group of individuals all primed to make a contribution—and in the word’s of Gandhi—to be the difference they wish to see in the world.

And this is what executive director Peter Kentworthy and David Holbrooke had hoped for by continuing to lead Mountainfilm through the largely uncharted territory of philanthropic adventure film festivals. And no matter if patrons choose to fully immerse themselves or just come for the free breakfast talks and gallery walks, Holbrooke hopes that they are changed in some way by the experience. “We hope that people come away with a sense of commitment to have a positive impact on the planet and a better understanding of what they can do to help,” Holbrooke says.